D.T. Krippene

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D.T. Krippene

Tag Archives: Blade Runner

Dystopia and the Malthusian Check

08 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by dtkrippene in Dystopian Subjects, Writing Dystopian Themes

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Blade Runner, Dan Brown, Dystopia, Dystopian Fiction, Elysium, Joachim Boaz, Malthusian Catastrophe, Overpopulation, population growth, Robert Heinlein, Soylent Green, Thomas Malthus, World Population, Writing Dystopia, Writing Science Fiction

ARTi19 DepositPhotos.com

ARTi19 DepositPhotos.com

Those who read or write dystopian and apocalyptic stories, are likely to know what a Malthusian Check is.  For those who don’t, a quick Wikipedia definition.

In 1798, Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population, in which he wrote:

“The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.”

Also known as a Malthusian catastrophe, it refers to humanity’s forced return to subsistence-level conditions if population growth outpaces the world’s agricultural production.

It involves a subject we hear about in a regular stream of media events, population growth.  Today, the human population is estimated around 7 billion.   In the last two-thousand years, we’ve gone from just another mammalian species struggling for a niche, to the most dominant, animal life form on the planet.  We can thank our developed frontal lobe for allowing us to think our way out of natural selection limiters designed to keep numbers in check.  Today, humanity’s only real predator is …

Ourselves.

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About DT

dtkrippene

dtkrippene

A native of Wisconsin and Connecticut, DT deserted aspirations of being a biologist to live the corporate dream and raise a family. After seven homes, a ten-year stint working in Asia, and an imagination that never slept, his muse refused to be hobbled as a mere dream. A member of the Bethlehem Writers Group and Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group, DT writes apocalyptic science fiction, paranormal, and parallel universe science fantasy. DT has published several short stories. “Hell of a Deal”, in the paranormal collection, Untethered, and most recently, “Man’s Best Friend”, in the 2021 Best Indie Book for Fiction, Fur, Feathers, and Scales. He also appeared in the Write Here – Write Now short story collection with his middle-grade paranormal, “Locker 33C”. An active member of the Bethlehem Writers Group, he’s been a featured author in the BWG Writers Roundtable Magazine, and will appear in the July 2021 Summer Issue with “Hot as Sin”. His latest project is an apocalyptic tale of humans on the edge extinction, and a young man born years after surviving humans had been rendered sterile. You can find D.T. on his website, Searching for Light in the Darkness, and his social media links on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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